September 29, 2016

A few possible reasons Trump is doing so well

After leading the world for decades in 25-34 year olds with university degrees, the U.S. is now in 12th
place. The World Economic Forum ranked the U.S. at 52nd among 139
nations in the quality of its university math and science instruction in
2010. Nearly 50% of all graduate students in the sciences in the U.S.
are foreigners, most of whom are returning to their home countries;

The Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs commissioned a civic
education poll among public school students. A surprising 77% didn't
know that George Washington was the first President; couldn't name
Thomas Jefferson as the author of the Declaration of Independence; and
only 2.8% of the students actually passed the citizenship test. Along
similar lines, the Goldwater Institute of Phoenix did the same survey
and only 3.5% of students passed the civics test;

According to the National Research Council report, only 28% of high
school science teachers consistently follow the National Research
Council guidelines on teaching evolution, and 13% of those teachers
explicitly advocate creationism or "intelligent design;"

18% of Americans still believe that the sun revolves around the earth, according to a Gallup poll;

The American Association of State Colleges and Universities report
on education shows that the U.S. ranks second among all nations in the
proportion of the population aged 35-64 with a college degree, but 19th
in the percentage of those aged 25-34 with an associate or high school
diploma, which means that for the first time, the educational attainment
of young people will be lower than their parents;

74% of Republicans in the U.S. Senate and 53% in the House of Representatives deny the validity of climate change despite the findings of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and every other significant scientific organization in the world;

According to the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress,
68% of public school children in the U.S. do not read proficiently by
the time they finish third grade. And the U.S. News & World reported
that barely 50% of students are ready for college level reading when
they graduate;

According to a 2006 survey by National Geographic-Roper, nearly half
of Americans between ages 18 and 24 do not think it necessary to know
the location of other countries in which important news is being made.
More than a third consider it "not at all important" to know a foreign
language, and only 14 percent consider it "very important;"

According to the National Endowment for the Arts report in 1982, 82%
of college graduates read novels or poems for pleasure; two decades
later only 67% did. And more than 40% of Americans under 44 did not read
a single book--fiction or nonfiction--over the course of a year. The
proportion of 17 year olds who read nothing (unless required by school )
has doubled between 1984-2004;

Gallup released a poll indicating 42 percent of Americans still believe God created human beings in their present form less than 10,000 years ago;

A 2008 University of Texas study found that 25 percent of public
school biology teachers believe that humans and dinosaurs inhabited the
earth simultaneously.

3 comments:

The reason Trump or Clinton are doing so well is because no other candidates are getting any air time -- no media coverage.

Other candidates and parties have excellent ideas and platforms to solve or mitigate these issues, but are not being presented to the American voters, hence, no one knows that they have alternatives and are uninformed - thinking with their gut. You know, like in Germany in the late 1930s. Responding to extreme rhetoric.

The two party system is choking off our pool of good ideas in favor of, to be frank, a two-headed corporate party that could fix these problems but doesn't want to, in order to profit off the ignorance and neglect listed.

What would be of more use to TPR readers and the public in general is to present issues like these and list what each party's platform proposes to do about it.

While many will ignore what the DemoPubs say, given their track record of lying, at least the non-lying platforms would get through at the same time.

Its obvious that the Trump campaign lies, or, just says what is convenient at the time. Donald Trump's company is now being shown to have done business with Cuba during the embargo while lecturing self-righteously to Cuban Americans at about the same time.

Don't think the Democrats lie? The DNC, now being sued in Federal court over their installation of Hillary Clinton as the nominee and actively sabotaging the Bernie Sanders primary campaign now admits they did that. Yet Debbie the Chair said all primaries were conducted in a non-partisan by-the-book manner.

The whole lying to keep power thing is so pointless if the motivation is to keep making arms for the world for profit. No wonder Elon wants us all to go to Mars. I notice the trip to Mars video stopped at the hatch opening looking out on to the Martian landscape - what are we supposed to do when we get there? Its a long way to go to enjoy no US elections and a large delay of the NFL season!

Corporations that currently manufacture arms could easily - at least with some start up capital - convert their gun factories to solar panel and other green strategy factories. No one has to go hungry. But let's improve the planet while the profits roll along.

Also, if Hillary Clinton has Parkinson's Disease or other serious neurological disorder, as it has been suggested [ http://www.vidzette.com/ ] and continues to run for President, I would assign that as the most cynical decision of any candidate to date. Trump may be a fool but this would qualify HRC as a knave.

Other observations seem to indicate that hand signals - HRC scratching her face - triggered the host to interrupt Donald Trump shortly after, many times. Review the footage for yourself. If true, this seems to be more of the general bias from many sources to install - not elect - this candidate.

Look well, oh Wolves. The truth is there for all to see, unless you're focused on football or some other equally trivially indulgent entertainment. Put your toys aside for the moment. Can't your fantasy league run itself until December?

After nearly a quarter of a century folks have finally caught on to the Clinton scam and just aren't buying it any more. Twenty five years too late, but nevertheless it is so. Even a casual reflection upon the first two presidential terms of a Clinton ought reveal who's the greatest threat to the US citizenry and the world. Never in our history has a more accommodating and mendacious pair be afforded the means and opportunity to advance the designs of Mammon and militarism.

SAY IT AGAIN, SAM

ABOUT THE EDITOR

The Review is edited by Sam Smith, who covered Washington under nine presidents, has edited the Progressive Review and its predecessors since 1964, wrote four books, been published in five anthologies, helped to start six organizations (including the DC Humanities Council, the national Green Party and the DC Statehood Party), was a plaintiff in three successful class action suits, served as a Coast Guard officer, and played in jazz bands for four decades.

ABOUT THE REVIEW

Regularly ahead of the curve, the Review has opposed federal drug policy for over 40 years, was a lonely media voice against the massive freeways planned for Washington, was an early advocate of bikeways and light rail, and helped spur the creation of the DC Statehood Party and the national Green Party,

In November 1990 it devoted an entire issue to the ecologically sound city and how to develop it. The article was republished widely.

Even before Clinton's nomination we exposed Arkansas political scandals that would later become major issues. .

We reported on NSA monitoring of U.S. phone calls in the 1990s, years before it became a major media story.

In 2003 editor Sam Smith wrote an article for Harper's comprised entirely of falsehoods about Iraq by Bush administration officials.

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In 1987 we ran an article on AIDS. It was the first year that more than 1,000 men died of the disease.

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In 1971 we published our first article in support of single payer universal health care